Sun Aug 4 – Whale Watching

Sun Aug 4 – Whale Watching
Whale Trifecta! 2 Minke whales, 5 humpback whales (including a mom and calf), and a finback whale! 8 whales in all!
What do you get when you have unlimited visibility, flat seas, and good eyes? Lots of whales. Shortly after heading out past the lighthouse, we spot our first whale, a minke whale. They are relative small baleen whales and this one was not only small, but also entangled in fishing gear. The gear was loosely wrapped, but still obviously having an effect. The Coast Guard was notified, then in turn notified the Center for Coastal Studies Marine Animal Entanglement Response Team. CRESLI sent photos and all folks are asked to keep an eye out (see https://drartiek-cresli.smugmug.com/…/2019-08-0…/i-VsXTmxz/A for a photo). All too sad to see, but we were glad to help. We continued on our way and found our first of 5 humpbacks about 30 minutes later. We began to see blows in many directions and were ultimately able get close to photograph others. Very nice to see our first mom and calf of this summer. As the day progressed were saw more, including the same tail-throwing whale that we’d seen on 7/14 and 7/21, and it threw its tail once this trip too. The whales were busy eating and we were able to get a quick glimpse of a fast moving finback and another minke. When we headed back in, we looked behind us and found blows all over – I guess we know where to go on Wednesday!